Tag Archives: motorola

Sadly late last week my much loved Nexus 4 phone died. After much testing, it turned out to be a failure of the flash memory on which the system lives, and so the device is fairly well dead.

I’m pretty well determined to keep as close to the stock Android experience as possible. LG is pretty good at that, and they manufactured the Nexus 4, and it was a great price. However, it concerns me when an manufacturer sells me a product that dies less than six months past its warranty. So I am skeptical of LG right now.

That left me considering the Google devices and the Motorola devices. The Nexus 5 looks wonderful, and the price is excellent. I’ve heard many good things about it. And looking through the Motorola lineup, the Moto X stood out as the best option, even above their new “budget” models.

Between the Nexus 5 and the Moto X I was hard-pressed to decide. The Nexus 5 certainly had much better system specifications on paper, but the Moto X was incredibly well-engineered, and creatively so as well.

In the end, the creativity and engineering of the Moto X won out for me, even above the base system specifications. This decision was the more premium, price-wise as well, though not by a wide margin, considering a free bumper case was being included and Google charged a ridiculous price for shipping last time.

When all was said and done, I ended up with a new phone from Motorola, the Moto X, 32 GB of flash memory, a bumper case, an NFC clip that acts as an unlock, and a real walnut wood case, for $475, including tax.

Most satisfactory, except for the fact that I have to buy it at all, because my Google/LG Nexus 4 failed, and I was forced to. I think the main reason I chose the Moto X was because Motorola is the manufacturer, and every Motorola device I have ever owned has worked flawlessly, never dying, and survived everything I dished out to it. In my mind, Motorola has a reputation of reliability and durability, as well as engineering — and they are a company that takes pride in making a solid product as well. But I have to admit, having a real wood case was also a nice selling point.

Anyway, I ordered it, custom made, with walnut, gold metallic highlighting, orange bumpers, my name engraved on it (I never resell), and all sorts of little custom details about the software innards. It arrived before a week was out, and they were excellent about keeping me informed of the billing, build and shipping progress along the way. A completely satisfactory experience.

The Experience

This Moto X, first of all, is much more fluid than my Nexus 4. And the screen, even though it is less resolution, looks better. And best of all, this is the first of the smartphones I’ve owned that actually felt very natural and comfortable to hold in the hand.

Of course, being a Google Android device, it synced itself up all quick and nicely with my contacts once I connected my Google account. And the phone was great at pointing out things you should consider activating or doing as your started to break the phone in, customizing it even further toward your tastes.

I really was surprised at how fast and smooth this phone was. I was imagining that, despite what others had said, I would run into the occasional performance stutter, especially when all the apps were installing themselves as I was trying to do other things. But it didn’t. I don’t know what these Motorola engineers did, but they did something very, very right.

For a while now, I’ve slowly been getting myself used to dictating messages to my Android devices rather than typing them out. Always there is the occasional annoying glitch in its interpretation than you must awkwardly return to manually fix. Happily, one of the first things I noticed was that this Moto X was noticeably superior at voice recognition than my Nexus 4 was, and my Nexus 4 was damn good!

I think I remember reading somewhere that Motorola engineers added a small CPU whose sole purpose was to perform voice recognition. I suppose I should verify this before even mentioning it, but I’ll leave that for you to do, if you doubt my memory as much as I do. If they did, it certainly shows.

I remember thinking, when I first heard of it, how unsettling it would be to have a device that was going to be listening to you at all times. Particularly in an age when so many “true Americans” with “American values” have such a fetish for voyeurism and disdain for any privacy. But my Moto X is sitting right next to me, on the right. I know it hears my clicking keyboards, and maybe a fart. And of course, all the lies I tell myself when nobody is around. But it’s not looming there, like I imagined it might, with its own disturbing gravity of ears. Though perhaps it should. I don’t know.

But what I do know is that I love being able to yell out to it from across the room and have it answer or do something for me. Before, I thought, what a silly feature really. I can just hit the microphone button on the search bar and get the same thing. But there is something very different about it just being there, knowing you can just tell it something, at any time, or ask it something, as if it were actually something… in the room with you.

I think it’s impossible to describe. Just like how it feels in the hand. And just like how things move within the screens. And how it knows when you’re in the car driving, and will read out messages to you if you like, instead. These guys as Motorola thought of a lot of things, and they really did an amazing job bringing those things together into an actual working device.

I suppose it all boils down to, I like this phone. I like the Moto X so much that I’m even a little happy that my LG Nexus 4 died, just so that we could be together now. And I don’t have even the slightest hint of regret that I might be missing something, having chose the Moto X over the Nexus 5. In fact, I’m happy that I did.

Oh, I should also mention the camera. I like taking pictures. From what I was reading earlier, neither then Nexus 5 or the Moto X supposedly have the greatest camera. But I do like this camera better than the one I had on my Nexus 4. It takes beautiful pictures, to me. And the camera app is very fast. In another very clever design decision, Motorola engineers thought to make the camera start when you flick your wrist. I thought, how silly, really. But the thing is, it’s very useful! And it happens fast!

The thing I don’t like about the camera is that it seems very easy to blur the pictures. I think it must not have any image stabilization, or maybe I just haven’t found it to enable yet. So you have to be aware of your hand and body motion as you snap. This is a little bothersome, being so sensitive. Then again, for years with cameras, I had to worry about the same thing – always using the trick of holding your breath when you shoot to keep the lens from any distorting motions.

I would still say that is a minus of the camera. And really, that’s the only minus I’ve found – amongst so many pluses! The most peculiar and delightful thing about this phone is the pluses you never even thought would be there. The biggest being; the Moto X is just so damn comfortable to be around!

This device really is a truly wonderful dollop of engineering and design baked into a sweet package. It is understated, elegant, and intelligent, at all levels, and at any angle. I honestly don’t think I could be happier with a phone. I could just eat it!

My new Moto X with a walnut back! Picture was taken with my no-good Nexus 7 front-facing camera though, with lots of unsightly reflection from the plant’s artificial sun.